Ripped
by ChestyMcBoobs
Summary: A Jack the Ripper copycat is on the loose, and with no evidence to go on, there's only one way to catch him...(Sequel to Isolation. COMPLETE!)
1. Default Chapter

Title: Ripped 1/? (Third in an ongoing series following "Blood Ties" and "Isolation.")  
  
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down cause I'll never pay!  
  
Rating: Heavy R, *maybe* NC-17 (This one starts off with a...er, bang. Subsequent parts will be rated R.)  
  
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh  
  
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.  
  
Summary: A "non-relationship" that's rapidly unraveling, two "spectators" getting in on the action, an inconvenient family visit, and a serial killer who's mimicking the M.O of Jack the Ripper. In other words, a typically atypical day for our favorite CSIs.  
  
  
  
__________________________________________  
  
Maria's first thought when she opened her eyes was that she must have been in her own bed, and the previous night had been an unusually vivid and detailed dream. Because the other side of the bed was empty. But she was in Eric's apartment, in his bed. Then she remembered what day it was.  
  
"Going to church?" She asked, rolling over to watch him get dressed. "Gonna confess all the sinful things you did to me last night? You shouldn't even bother, you know you're just going to do them to me again later."  
  
"You could come with me." He offered, walking over to the bed and bending over so he was at her eye level.  
  
"No thanks." She sighed, turning onto her back and letting the sheet that covered her slide off. His sharp intake of breath at the sight of her naked torso didn't go unnoticed. "My slate's too dirty to ever get wiped clean now. Besides, I'd probably burst into flames the second I walked through the door."  
  
"Now you're just being melodramatic." Eric told her. Even as he spoke, his hand came to rest on her shoulder, then slowly slid down to her breasts.  
  
"I don't get any of it." Maria replied. "Why bother going back, week after week, when nothing ever changes?"  
  
Eric didn't have an answer to her question. And he didn't think she really wanted one, anyway. Besides, at that moment, the warmth and softness of her skin was making it increasingly difficult for him to even remember why he had gotten out of bed in the first place.  
  
Almost before he even realized what he was doing, he was climbing back into the bed, as she moved aside to make room for him.   
  
"You're a bad influence." He groaned before kissing her hungrily.   
  
"You're too easily influenced." She countered, her slender fingers making quick work of his clothes as continued to kiss her.  
  
"I can miss it once in a while."   
  
"Stop talking." Maria said breathlessly, pulling him down on top of her. He complied willingly, running his hands over her body as she wrapped her legs around him. Feeling impatient, she arched against him, but he continued to touch her, slowly and lightly, driving her completely insane. She gasped whenever his fingers brushed over a sensitive spot. He knew exactly how and where to touch her, and it frightened her a little. How simply by laying his hands on her, he seemed to be able to take control of her.  
  
She had no idea that at that moment, he was thinking almost the exact same thoughts about her. It was not supposed to be like this, he told himself. She was not supposed to have this kind of effect on him. They had agreed from the beginning, that this was not going to be a relationship. In fact, she had even used the term "non-relationship" to describe it.   
  
As he finally gave her what she wanted and sank into her, he repeated the term in his head. That was all it was supposed to be.  
  
He was not supposed to have become addicted to her.   
  
And yet, here he was, watching her face contort with pleasure as he started a slow, steady rhythm, sliding in and out of her. He'd had casual sex with random women before. But this was not a one-night stand with some shallow slut he'd picked up in a bar. This was Maria, the smart, cynical, funny woman he'd been working with for two months.   
  
He forced himself to concentrate on Maria, as he began to thrust harder and faster, matching the pace that she was moving against him with. He focused on how incredible she felt, how good his name sounded coming from her lips.  
  
Maria bit her lower lip to keep from screaming, and shut her eyes tightly. She knew that if she opened them, she would see him watching her face, with a hungry, possessive look in his eyes. She'd seen that look before, though it seemed like such a long time ago. It brought back so many memories. Too many.   
  
It seemed like hours later when she lifted her head off of his chest. His eyes were closed, but she quickly realized he wasn't asleep as she started to move of off him and his arms tightened around her waist.   
  
Without even opening his eyes, Eric pulled her tightly against him and kissed her deeply.  
  
She pulled away quickly and got out of the bed. "I have to go."  
  
________________________  
  
"You're home late." Calleigh observed as Maria stumbled through the door. Watching her, Calleigh couldn't help but notice that her friend seemed agitated. "Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm fine." Maria replied flatly. "I'm on call today. You?"  
  
"Yeah, me too." Calleigh said. "Are you sure you're all right?"  
  
Maria didn't even look at her, just walked quickly past her, down the hallway to the bathroom. "I'm fine." She repeated. "I need to take a shower."   
  
With that, she shut the bathroom door. Hard. A second later, Calleigh heard the click of the lock.  
  
____________________________  
  
TBC... 


	2. Chapter Two

Title: Ripped (2/?)  
  
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down, cause I'll never pay!  
  
Rating: R  
  
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh  
  
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.  
  
Soundtrack to this part: "Why Can't I?" by Liz Phair.  
  
__________________________________________  
  
But this is just the beginning  
  
We're already wet  
  
And we're gonna go swimming  
  
Why can't I breathe  
  
Whenever I think about you?  
  
Why can't I speak  
  
Whenever I talk about you?  
  
It's inevitable, it's a fact  
  
That we're gonna get down to it  
  
So tell me, why can't I breathe  
  
Whenever I think about you?  
  
________________________  
  
Calleigh waited until she heard the water running, then walked swiftly to her bedroom and opened the door.  
  
"Did you tell her I'm here?" Tim asked, emerging from the bedroom.  
  
"I was going to." Calleigh sighed. "But she seemed upset about something, and seeing as she just came from Delko's apartment, I thought maybe I'd better not. I don't want her to get the wrong idea." In the two weeks since Eric and Maria had been hospitalized, Calleigh and Tim had been spending more time together, keeping an eye on their two friends at the request of the doctors who had treated them.   
  
Watching the increasingly dysfunctional interactions between the couple, or rather, "non-couple," they had joked about feeling like spectators watching a tennis match. That had led to discussions about office romances, which in turn had led to discussions about their own love lives. All of this had led to Tim spending more time at the women's' apartment, to the point where the two of them had fallen asleep on the couch during a movie the night before.  
  
It had been completely innocent, but Calleigh wasn't sure Maria would believe that, and besides that, her emotional state had seemed less than stable.  
  
"She's been spending more nights there lately, huh?" Tim observed.  
  
"Yeah, which I can't say I mind, exactly." Calleigh admitted. "I mean, I don't exactly miss going to sleep every night to the 'music' of the headboard banging against the wall and her shrieking 'Oh God! Yes! Yes! Right there! Don't stop!'" She said the last part in a perfect impression of Maria's breathy, multi-regional accent that came from a lifetime of moving to a new time zone every six months. "I swear, it's like the goddamn 'Nympholympics' or something."  
  
Tim chuckled, even as he glanced at the bathroom door, hoping Maria couldn't hear them. "I'm sensing there's a 'but,' though."  
  
Calleigh sighed and leaned against the wall. "She's just seeming so withdrawn. But every time I try to talk to her, she brushes me off."  
  
"At least she knows that you're concerned." Tim said, trying to reassure her. "Hopefully, she'll keep that in mind if she ever does need to talk."  
  
"Yeah." Calleigh nodded. "You're right."   
  
"Guess I'd better go." Tim broke the silence that hung between them for a moment.   
  
"Yeah." Calleigh agreed. "Listen, the video isn't due back until Tuesday, why don't I call you later, and maybe we could finish watching the movie?"  
  
"I'd like that." Tim said. He paused, and for a moment he looked like he was about to pull her into his arms, but instead he just lay his hand on her arm for a moment. "I'll see you later."  
  
_____________________  
  
I would love for you to make me wonder  
  
Where it's going  
  
I would love for you to pull me under  
  
Something's growing  
  
Out of this that we can't control  
  
Baby, I am dying  
  
Why can't I breathe  
  
Whenever I think about you?  
  
Why can't I speak  
  
Whenever I talk about you?  
  
It's inevitable, it's a fact  
  
That we're gonna get down to it  
  
So tell me, why can't I breathe  
  
Whenever I think about you?  
  
________________________  
  
Maria drew her knees up to her chest, resting her arms on them, and her chin on her arms, as she curled up at the back of the bathtub. The cold water from the showerhead pelted her body and assailed her face, mingling with her tears.  
  
'It's just fucking.' She thought. That was all it was supposed to be. She was not supposed to feel trapped. But she did.  
  
And she shouldn't have felt like that. Eric never tried to possess her or hurt her in any way.   
  
She tried not to think about the way he touched her, and the way he whispered to her how good she felt, and how beautiful she was. She could almost believe him when he said that. While he was fucking her, she felt beautiful, and strong. But it was only temporary, and only physical.  
  
It drove her crazy, the contradiction of the physical pleasure and mental anguish he could cause her to feel.  
  
She didn't deserve Eric. He was a good man, and he treated her well. And she didn't understand that at all. He treated her better than she ever could hope to deserve. Better than she had ever given him reason to treat her. He cared about her.   
  
Part of her wanted to come clean, wanted to be honest with him. But every time she saw him, she couldn't find the words. And maybe it was better that way.  
  
She could let him fuck her, but she could never let him really know her. Because if she did, she was sure she would lose him.  
  
Slowly, she rose to her knees, and reached up to turn off the water. Stepping out from behind the shower curtain, she grabbed her burgundy bathrobe off the hook on the back of the door and wrapped it around her dripping body. Twisting a towel around her wet hair, she opened the door.  
  
"Hey, Calleigh...holy shit!"  
  
"Maria!" Calleigh gasped as she and Tim broke apart, startled by the outburst. "Jesus, this isn't what it looks like!"  
  
"It looks like you guys were making out, and I interrupted." Maria observed, leaning in the doorway, pulling her robe a little tighter around herself.  
  
"No. Well, yeah, but Tim was just leaving and we..." As she stammered an explanation, she opened the front door and nudged Tim towards it. "I'll call you later." She whispered to him.  
  
He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. "I'll call you first." He glanced past her, to her bemused roommate. "Bye, Maria."  
  
"Bye." Maria replied calmly as the door closed behind him.  
  
Calleigh had managed to recover her senses. "Oh my God. I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me."  
  
"It's cool, I needed a good laugh." Maria said, sitting on the couch. "Besides, it's none of my business. You can screw whoever you want."  
  
"I didn't sc-" Calleigh paused and corrected herself. "I didn't sleep with him."  
  
"Yeah, but you so want to." Maria teased.  
  
"I don't know." Calleigh sat down in the armchair. "I've known him for a while, we've always been good friends, and now, we've been so much time together, and I'm feeling completely different...and sounding like a goddamn teenager."  
  
"No, you're making sense." Maria assured her. "God, we're fucked up. You're all bent out of shape over someone you've known forever, and I'm all bent out of shape over someone I've been fucking for two months and barely know at all."  
  
Calleigh looked at her. "I knew it. Something happened with you and Eric?"  
  
"Nothing." Maria sighed. "Well, nothing besides what usually happens when the two of us get together."  
  
"He's crazy about you." Calleigh said. "The way he looks at you...I've never seen him like that. Hell, I've never seen anyone like that, period."  
  
The phone rang, a welcome reprieve for Maria. She picked up the cordless receiver on the coffee table. "Maria and Calleigh's brothel and sushi bar."  
  
"What the fuck?" A confused male voice sputtered. "Maria?"  
  
"Oh, Hagen, it's you." Maria said casually. "Is this gonna be pickup or delivery?"  
  
Calleigh laughed. Maria was showing a few signs of being back to her old self, and that was a huge relief.  
  
"Yeah, okay...both of us?" Maria was saying. "Okay, we'll meet you there in about half an hour." She turned off the phone and rolled her eyes. "We've got a DB at the marina. That's all he knew."  
  
"So much for the day off." Calleigh observed. "Guess we'd better get dressed."  
  
________________________  
  
"Lucy. Ethel." Hagen greeted the two women as they got out of Maria's car.  
  
"You're Ethel." Maria and Calleigh said to each other at the same time.  
  
"What happened to Jugs and Ammo?" Maria asked Hagen, referring to his former nicknames for herself and Calleigh.  
  
"Got bored." Hagen replied with a shrug.  
  
"Yeah, why do I have a feeling you get bored a lot?" Maria muttered under her breath. Out loud, she asked "So, what do we have?"  
  
"One vic, female. She's back behind that dumpster." Hagen said, gesturing.  
  
"Have you taken a look yet?" Calleigh asked.  
  
Hagen shook his head. "Just got here. Ladies first."  
  
"Well, I don't see any of those." Maria scoffed as the three of them walked behind the dumpster.  
  
Seconds later, all three detectives practically bolted from behind the dumpster.  
  
"Holy mother of...I mean, my God!" Calleigh gasped out, shaking her head as if to erase the memory of what she had just seen.  
  
"Maybe she was attacked by a shark or something." Hagen was so pale he was almost translucent.  
  
"Forty feet away from the water?" Maria said incredulously. "But...holy shit! I mean, have you ever seen anything so...it's like she was ripped to pieces and put back together wrong...what kind of sick...oh, God, I think I'm going to puke."  
  
At that point, they noticed that the officers around them were all staring.   
  
"Uh, I mean...we'd better get started." Maria stammered, trying to maintain some semblance of dignity.  
  
_________________________  
  
"Geez, man, they called you in, too?" Eric asked.  
  
"Yeah, sounds like we've got a pretty gruesome one." Tim replied.  
  
"Gruesome doesn't begin to describe it, boys." Maria sighed as she entered the breakroom, looking thoroughly shaken. "We need all the help we can get processing everything we found at the scene."  
  
"Why?" Tim asked.  
  
"Well, because the victim was all over the scene." Maria shuddered. "All we've got so far is an I.D. Shenique Harris, thirty-seven. A prostitute, apparently, she had three priors. Alexx is working on cause of death, but the fact that all of her insides were pulled out is what I'd bet on."  
  
"She was eviscerated?" Eric said, stopping in the middle of reaching for a jelly donut from the box on the counter. He drew his hand back as if the box was on fire.  
  
"We found her kidneys and intestines near the body." Maria replied. "Her breasts, uterus, heart, and all external genitalia were removed, and apparently went with the killer."  
  
"Jack the Ripper." Tim said, almost to himself. "I mean, a prostitute, completely mutilated, heart and reproductive organs taken. That's pretty similar to his M.O, right?  
  
"That's exactly what I was thinking." Maria agreed. "I studied that case almost obsessively for years, and the similarities are almost frightening."  
  
"Studied it obsessively?" Tim repeated. "That's a little morbid, isn't it?"  
  
"Yeah." Maria replied nonchalantly, sitting down and grabbing the same jelly donut Eric had just turned away from. "Hey, why don't you go talk to Calleigh? She's pretty shaken up, and Hagen's being such a wuss, he's no help."  
  
"Yeah, I'll go see how she's doing." Tim replied, choosing to ignore the knowing smirk Maria flashed at him as he left the room.  
  
"So..." Maria suddenly realized her mistake in sending Tim away. She was now alone with Eric, for the first time since she had left abruptly that morning.  
  
If he felt at all awkward, though, he didn't show it. Instead, he moved closer to her and ran his hand down her arm as he leaned in and kissed her softly. "How about you, are you all right?"  
  
"Yeah." She managed to say, even as his lips pressed firmly against her bare shoulder, following the path his hand had taken moments before. His fingers were now busy on her opposite shoulder, tracing the wide lace trim on the low neckline of her crimson top. "It's pretty hideous...but we're trained to handle this sort of thing."  
  
"So, what are you working on now?" Eric asked. He stood up straight and slowly spread his hands across her back, rubbing her tense muscles.  
  
"Nothing, until Alexx finishes the post." Maria replied, letting her eyes drift shut. His hands could do amazing things to her willpower. As if he sensed her weakening, he leaned down again and kissed the back of her neck, exposed by the tight braid she had pulled her golden hair into. "Eric..." She moaned softly, trying to ignore the fact that his hands had slid around to her breasts. "We can't...not here..."  
  
______________________  
  
"Hey." Tim said, approaching Calleigh in the corridor.   
  
"Hey!" She replied, clearly glad to see him. "When did you get here?"  
  
"About ten minutes ago." He replied. "Maria said it's pretty hideous, are you okay?"  
  
"Aside from seeing it every time I close my eyes, yeah." Calleigh sighed. "She tell you what we were thinking?"  
  
"Jack the Ripper rip-off, yeah." Tim said. "You gotta admit, it's ambitious."  
  
Calleigh gave him a wry smile. "Well, here's hoping we can squelch this guy's ambition."  
  
"Yeah. Hey, listen, about this morning-"  
  
"Calleigh!" A voice interrupted from behind them.  
  
The CSIs turned and saw two tall, muscular men with military haircuts approaching.   
  
"Hey, you guys." Calleigh said cheerfully. "Tim, this is Maria's brother Anton, and her half-brother, Estefan. Guys, this is Tim Speedle, he works with me and Maria."  
  
"Nice to meet you guys." Tim said, sizing the two men up. He was anything but out of shape, but both of them, he decided, could probably snap his spine with one hand while making coffee with the other.  
  
"Yeah, you too, man." Anton replied, grabbing his hand in a crushing handshake. "Maria's mentioned you a few times, sounds like you guys get along pretty well."  
  
"She's a real piece of work." Tim agreed. "And a hell of a CSI."  
  
"That's our Amtrak." Estefan said. "Cal, is she here? We gotta talk to her."  
  
"Yeah. We're working on a new case, but she's got some down time." Calleigh replied.  
  
"Check the breakroom." Tim suggested. "Take a right at the end of the hall, it's the second door on the left."  
  
"Okay, cool." Estefan said. "Thanks, man. Nice meeting you. Later, Calleigh."  
  
"Yeah, later." Calleigh replied.  
  
"Amtrak?" Tim repeated as soon as the two men were gone.  
  
"That's their nickname for Maria." Calleigh explained. "Because she's as chaotic as a train wreck."  
  
"Yo, we checked the breakroom." Anton said as he and Estefan returned. "Only person in there's your boss, and he ain't seen her."  
  
"He's kinda...intense, huh?" Estefan added.  
  
"Yeah, that's H." Tim said.  
  
"I'll page Maria, she might have stepped out for a few minutes." Calleigh offered. "You guys can crash in the breakroom."  
  
"All right, thanks." Anton said. A minute later, the two of them were gone again.  
  
"Hey, page Delko, too." Tim suggested. "He was in the breakroom with her when I left, maybe he's seen her."  
  
"You left them alone in there?" Calleigh tried and failed to stifle a laugh. "Well, guess we know where Maria is."  
  
"What do you think, storage or gun vault?" Tim asked, rolling his eyes.  
  
"Gun vault?" Calleigh repeated. "They didn't...did they?"  
  
"Yep, they befouled it." Tim said teasingly, earning him a playful slap on the arm.  
  
"They truly are depraved." Calleigh sighed, taking out her cell phone to page Maria.  
  
_____________________  
  
TBC… 


	3. Chapter Three

Title: Ripped (3/?)  
  
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down cause I'll never pay!  
  
Rating: R/NC-17 (This part's pretty short, because it's just the NC-17 material. As usual, you won't miss anything if you skip this part, so if you're offended by smut and/or too young to read it, feel free to move right along…)  
  
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh  
  
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.  
  
__________________________________________  
  
"No..." Eric groaned against Maria's mouth as her pager went off.  
  
"Ignore it." Maria gasped, turning off the offending electronic device. She laughed softly. "I can not believe we're doing this."  
  
"Again." Eric reminded her. He lifted her up easily and walked over so she was pressed between him and the wall. "Familiar? We were right here, in this same spot, two months ago."  
  
Maria gasped. The day after they'd met. And the morning after the first time they had spent the night together. "I can't believe you remembered."  
  
"I can't believe you forgot." Eric teased, sliding his hand under her tight black skirt. "I thought girls were supposed to be obsessed with remembering anniversaries and crap like that."  
  
"Stop talking." Maria ordered, for the second time that day. "There are much better things you could be doing with your mouth right now."  
  
"Yeah, you're right about that." Eric admitted. The next thing Maria was aware of, he was kneeling in front of her, pushing her skirt up around her hips. He raised an eyebrow and smirked when he saw that she wasn't wearing underwear.  
  
"Laundry da..." Maria's words became an incoherent moan as Eric pressed his mouth against her sensitive flesh, probing gently with his tongue, then not as gently.   
  
Unable to form a single word, she simply urged him on with soft murmurs and her fingers tangling in his dark hair. She barely managed to stifle a scream when he plunged two fingers into her, thrusting slowly.  
  
Eric groaned as Maria began to move her hips slightly, trying to get closer to his mouth and hand. Her moans became quick, almost pained gasps as he began to move his tongue and his fingers faster.  
  
When he withdrew his hand and pushed his tongue into her instead, she'd had enough. "Now." She managed to whimper, tugging gently at his hair to pull him up.  
  
He stood up, wrapping his arms around Maria and lifting her up, supporting her against the wall with his hands under her thighs. She wrapped her legs around him as she unzipped his pants and pushed them and his boxer shorts down to his knees.  
  
Immediately, he slid into her, penetrating her deeply with one fluid motion. He moaned and nearly lost his balance as he was enveloped in her warmth and wetness, her inner muscles tightening around him. He dug his fingers into her skin, gritting his teeth to keep from crying out, knowing how disastrous it would be for both of them if they were caught.   
  
Pressing her harder into the wall behind her, he removed his hands from her thighs and pushed up her shirt. Lowering his head to her breasts, he teased her through the black lace, gently licking and sucking as she arched her back, trying to get closer to his mouth, to relieve the pressure that was building up inside of her.  
  
If she had been able to catch her breath, she would have been unable to hold back a scream as Eric began to thrust into her, hard, fast, and deep. Instead, she held onto him, matching his movements as much as she could, considering how tightly she was pressed between his body and the wall.   
  
She knew that they both should have felt guilty for what they were doing. They were neglecting their jobs to fuck. But at that moment, she couldn't have been bothered to care, and she was willing to bet that Eric wasn't too concerned about their behavior, either.  
  
The sheer intensity of her orgasm came as a shock to her, ripping through her and completely knocking the air out of her lungs. As she started to regain her senses, Maria realized Eric was still slamming into her. He kept thrusting until she came again, moaning his name, and then he couldn't hold off any longer, and climaxed deep inside of her with a low, hoarse groan.  
  
The two of them sagged against the wall, completely out of breath and dazed. Slowly, they slid to the floor, landing in a heap, their bodies still joined.  
  
"God, Maria..." Eric mumbled, his face buried in her long hair, now loosened from the tight braid by his fingers.  
  
"Yeah." She gasped out, leaning against him, listening to his heart beat slowly returning to normal.   
  
She almost cried when he pulled out of her suddenly. He managed to stand up, pulling her with him, and kept one arm around her waist as he smoothed her skirt and adjusted his own clothing. Then he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly.  
  
"We'd better get back upstairs." He said, brushing a few strands of hair off of her face.  
  
"You'll want to stop in the bathroom first, you're wearing more lipstick than I am." Maria replied, laughing as she noticed for the first time how disheveled he was, and realized that she must have looked equally frightful.  
  
Eric laughed, too, and took her in his arms, holding her close once more. It occurred to him that he and Maria didn't laugh together very often, and he'd better savor the moment while it lasted.  
  
_______________________  
  
TBC… 


	4. Chapter Four

Title: Ripped 4/?  
  
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down cause I'll never pay!  
  
Rating: R (Just icky stuff in this part, no fun stuff. Bummer.)  
  
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh  
  
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.  
  
Dedication: To Yana, thanks for persuading me to post this despite being unsure about it. Now, could ya try to persuade a few other folks to write a review? ;-)  
  
__________________________________________  
  
"What in the hell is the point of having a cell phone if you never answer it?" Calleigh asked Maria.  
  
"I didn't have it with me." Maria answered calmly.   
  
"I know that, I found it in the breakroom." Calleigh said. "What about your pager? I suppose you turned that off."  
  
"Eric and I were busy." Maria tried to keep her cool, praying silently that she wasn't blushing. "We were..."  
  
"Maria, don't bother. You know you don't need to make excuses with me." Calleigh reminded her. Only Calleigh and Tim knew about Eric and Maria's occasional trysts at the lab, and they were willing to cover for their friends, within reason. "However, I would like to know what the hell you two were doing in the gun vault last week."  
  
Maria turned bright red. "Tim is so friggin' dead." She hissed. When Tim had caught her and Eric sneaking out of the vault, they had sworn him to secrecy. She'd had a feeling that Calleigh wouldn't be too amused, and it seemed she'd been right. "Let's change the subject, okay? Alexx done with the post yet?"  
  
"No, probably not for a while." Calleigh said. "There's a whole lot of different pieces for her to go over."  
  
"Then why'd you page me?" Maria asked.  
  
"Come on." Calleigh pulled her friend toward the breakroom.   
  
Maria gasped when Calleigh opened the door. There, sitting on the couch, drinking coffee, and talking to Eric and Tim, were Anton and Estefan. "Oh my God." She groaned. "Guys, I don't know what they've been telling you, but I swear, I don't know them, I've never seen them before in my life, and they are definitely not my brothers."  
  
"Aw, come on, Amtrak." Anton chuckled, getting up from the couch and enveloping his sister in a hug. "We're not that embarrassing, are we?"  
  
"No, not at all." Maria said, rolling her eyes. "You just show up where I work, bother my coworkers, and call me obnoxious nicknames in front of them. Why would that embarrass me? What are you guys doing here?"  
  
"We need to talk to you." Anton explained. "Well, I do. Estefan's just been following me around all day."  
  
"Can it wait?" Maria asked.  
  
"It really can't." Anton said.   
  
"I'm afraid it's going to have to." Hagen cut in, entering the room. "Maria, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we've got another one."  
  
____________________  
  
"Hey, Salas." Maria greeted the other Hispanic woman. "Jesus Christ, they've sucked you in, too?"  
  
"Not just me. Sevilla and Bernstein are working on the first scene with the crime lab graveyard shift, and vice is getting in on it, too. If your 'Jack the Rip-off' theory pans out, don't be surprised if the entire police department is working on this case by tomorrow." Yelina replied. "Can you imagine the media frenzy?"  
  
"'Jack the Rip-off,' that's catchy. Let's hope the press doesn't catch it." Maria laughed wryly. "So, do we have an I.D?"  
  
"She's another prostitute, one of the other girls just confirmed that her name is Melissa Black." Yelina explained, gesturing off to one side, where a dark haired young woman was sobbing hysterically as two officers tried to get her under control. "Melissa was thirty-two, she was last seen alive at around eleven last night."  
  
"So that could put her time of death around the same as the first victim." Maria observed. "We're only about a mile from the marina."  
  
"Oh, shit." Yelina sighed, looking at the street outside the alleyway, where a news van had just pulled up. "We've got company."  
  
Maria rolled her eyes. "I'm surprised it took them so long. Can you handle them?" Yelina nodded. "Okay, good. Calleigh and Tim are covering the scene, John's taking a statement from her friend, so I guess that leaves-"  
  
"Us on the body." Eric finished for her.  
  
She turned to him and smiled weakly. "Lucky us." As they approached the back of the alley, she continued. "Brace yourself, if she's anything like the first one..." She trailed off when she saw the body. "Oh God. Much, much worse."  
  
Eric stumbled back. "Look, are we absolutely sure this wasn't some kind of animal?  
  
"You know of any animal that could have wrapped the intestines around the torso like that?" Maria asked. "Jesus, this is exactly the same as one of the Ripper's victims."  
  
"You weren't kidding when you said you'd studied the case obsessively." Eric observed.  
  
"Long story." Maria replied. "Okay, guys, listen up, I need a fifty foot perimeter around the body, no one without a badge gets through, and no one talks to the press, that clear?" She looked back at the body and shuddered. "This is going to be a very, very long day."  
  
_____________________  
  
"Hey, Eric, wait up." Anton said, just seconds after Eric walked into the lab.  
  
"Anton, what's up?" Eric asked, trying to appear casual. Truth was, Maria's brothers made him more than a little nervous, despite the fact that he had introduced himself as a friend of their sister, and neither one of them had challenged that.  
  
"Is Maria back yet?"  
  
"Yeah, she's back, but I don't think she's going to be able to talk to you for a little while."  
  
"Yeah, I saw that on the news." Anton said. "Pretty messed up."  
  
"You have no idea." Eric told him.  
  
________________________  
  
"Yo, Amtrak."   
  
Maria rolled her eyes as she turned around. "Estefan, call me that once more, and I'm going to have to start calling you Tiny. In front of girls."  
  
Estefan gulped. "Noted."  
  
"Atta boy." Maria smirked. Her brothers were huge, tough, annoyingly macho men. But they still cringed when their mother or one of their sisters gave them that look.  
  
"Uh, so, pretty sick case you guys have got." Estefan said.  
  
"I can't talk about it, you know." Maria told him.  
  
"Yeah, I figured as much." Estefan nodded. "I was just thinking, it's kinda ironic, you know? You working on a case like that. I mean, it is a Jack the Ripper copycat, right?"  
  
"We're not going to confirm or deny anything at this point." Maria replied curtly. "Listen, do you have any idea what Anton wants to talk to me about?"  
  
"I know exactly what it is." Estefan replied. "But, uh, it's something you should really hear from him."  
  
Maria felt a pang of fear seize her heart. "Estefan, what is it?"  
  
"Look, talk to him, okay?" Estefan said. "I gotta go. You gonna be at Mom and Dad's place for dinner tomorrow night?"  
  
"We'll see, this case could get a lot worse before it gets better." Maria sighed. She hugged him. "See ya, baby brother."  
  
"Watch it." Estefan cautioned her, ruffling her hair affectionately.  
  
Maria just smiled as he walked away. Estefan was a full foot taller than her, and probably outweighed her by a hundred pounds of solid muscle, but he was five years younger than she was, and besides, the irony of calling him her 'baby' brother was too good to pass up.  
  
"By the way." Estefan said casually, turning back. "Your shirt is inside out."  
  
"Fuck!"  
  
_____________________  
  
"Got another one for you, Alexx." Calleigh sighed. "Worse than the last one, I'm afraid."  
  
"Oh, my...you're right about that." Even the normally unflappable M.E looked shaken by the condition the second victim was in. "Well, darlin', I hope you didn't feel too much of this."  
  
"How did you do with the first one?" Calleigh asked.  
  
"Cause of death was the cut to her throat." Alexx replied. "All of the other mutilation was post-mortem. No signs of sexual assault, minimal defensive wounds. She never had a chance to fight back."  
  
Calleigh shuddered. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"  
  
"Nothing this extreme, thankfully." Alexx said. "Listen, how's Maria handling this? She spent a lot of time undercover when she was in vice, didn't she?"  
  
"Yeah, I was worried about that, too." Calleigh replied. "But she's fine. At least about the case."  
  
"And how about you?" Alexx asked.   
  
"Well, aside from feeling like I'll never be able to close my eyes for even a second without seeing these girls, I'm all right." Calleigh said with a disgusted air to her voice. "I hate it, you know? I just hate that there are people capable of this kind of thing in the world."  
  
_______________________  
  
"Maria, wait up." Tim called.   
  
"Hey Speed." Maria said. "What have you got for me?"  
  
"Broken glass with a very strong smelling green liquor on it." Tim replied, handing her an evidence container. "I'm thinking absinthe. That's one thing the Ripper used to lure his victims and dull their senses, right?"  
  
"Tim, I'm impressed." Maria told him. "You know your stuff...you saw that movie, didn't you?"  
  
"I happened to have kind of a thing for Heather Graham at the time." Tim replied.  
  
"Yeah, speaking of 'things,'" Maria leaned closer. "What's the deal with you and a certain roommate of mine? Are guys, like, a couple now or what?"  
  
"Why don't I get this down to the lab and get back to you as soon as I've got the results, okay?" Tim asked, ignoring her question.  
  
Maria pouted playfully. "Fine."  
  
"Hey, as long as we're prying into each other's personal lives." Tim said. "The Ripper case. You said you studied it for years. I mean, I know there are people who devote their lives to trying to solve it, but you don't seem like the obsessive type. What was it about the case that you were so into?"  
  
"It's a long story." Maria said. "And we don't have time for those right now. All signs point to this freak copying Jack the Ripper's M.O, which means he's planning to kill again. I refuse to let that happen."  
  
_______________________  
  
"All right, so picture it, Francesca is completely hammered, she fucking steals a Humvee, starts doin' donuts in front of the officer's club, right?" Anton was saying. "So a whole bunch of brass come pouring out of there to see what the hell the noise is. And she speeds off, giving them a 'New York salute,' crashes into the mess hall, steps out of it without a scratch, and passes out. I'm telling you, when Dad heard about that one, he damn near went Hulk on us."  
  
Eric laughed. He felt a little less uncomfortable around Anton, but he was still unsure of how to act around the brother of the woman he'd had sex with twice that morning. "Shit, you gotta be kidding me. And she didn't get discharged and locked up for that?"  
  
"Well, Yolanda was already in the Senate at the time, so she helped her out. I mean, usually she wouldn't pull strings for us like that, but Cesca'd never done any shit like that before, so she stepped in." Anton explained.  
  
"Senate?" Eric repeated, disbelieving. "As in, the United States Senate?"  
  
"That's the one." Anton said. "Yeah, Maria didn't tell you our stepmom is Senator Yolanda Santiago?"  
  
"Well, she mentioned her name." Eric said. "But, it's not like that's an uncommon name in this city, you know? I just never put two and two together."   
  
"Yeah, well, she doesn't really like to tell a lot of people about it. She doesn't want to be treated any differently because of what her name is." Anton explained. "So, how long have you been sleeping with her?"  
  
Eric choked. "Uh...what?"  
  
"You heard me, how long have you been sleeping with my sister?" Anton asked.  
  
"Uh...what?" Eric stammered again.  
  
"Good cover." Anton joked. "Chill, man, I'm not going to get all overprotective or anything. I figured out a long time ago that Maria's going to do whatever, and whoever she wants to, and I'm better off if I just keep my mouth shut."  
  
"We've been seeing each other for two months." Eric said, relieved that Anton wasn't going to kill him, at least not just yet.   
  
"Well, at least you're not another one of her losers of the week." Anton observed. "You know, she mentioned you once, right after she started working here. She said there was a guy here who had the same background as us, Russian and Cuban. She seemed so happy about that."  
  
"Yeah, she's said that you guys had a hard time when you were growing up, not looking like the rest of your family." Like Maria, Anton had fair skin with a slight suntan. His hair, what little hadn't been shaved off, was a shade or two darker than his sister's, but he had the same green eyes.  
  
"It was tough." Anton confirmed. "I think it may have been harder on her than it was on me, but we stuck together. I'm glad she met you, though. Just keep in mind, in SEAL training, I learned about fifty ways to kill a guy and make it look like an accident."  
  
Eric chuckled "Don't worry, man, I get it. I've got three older sisters." Even though he was the baby in his family, he had been protective of his sisters as a teenager. All three of them were pretty and flirtatious, and even though they were all adults now, he still sometimes worried that one of them would get hurt in some way.  
  
"Three? You poor bastard. Does Maria get along with them?" Anton asked.  
  
"She's never met them, actually." Eric replied.  
  
Anton raised an eyebrow. "You've been with her for two months, you had no idea her stepmom's a Senator, and she hasn't met your family? Ah, I get it. You guys have a sort of 'casual' relationship."  
  
That was it, Eric was sure. He was a dead man.  
  
"Jesus, relax, man!" Anton laughed out loud. "As long as you're both cool with that arrangement, I could give a shit. It's Maria's life, like I said, I try to stay out of it. Just be careful, you know? That's an easy way for someone to get hurt."  
  
"I care about her." Eric assured him. "I would never hurt her in any way."  
  
"That's good to know, but I wasn't just talking about Maria." Anton said. "I probably shouldn't even talk about this, but you seem like a decent guy, so you deserve to know what you're getting into. And Lord knows, Maria's never going to tell you."  
  
"Tell me what?" Eric asked.  
  
"Look, Maria's my baby sister, and I love her to death." Anton stated. "But she's a hard girl to get to know. She's been through some shit, and she's built up a lot of walls. There's a lot she probably hasn't told you, to be honest. You might want to think about that before you do something crazy like falling in love with her." He paused and glanced at Eric. "Then again, I get the feeling it might be a little late for that."  
  
Eric scoffed. "No way, man, I care about Maria, sure. But there's no way I'm..." A sudden realization hit him. "Ah, shit."  
  
"Yeah, you're a goner." Anton told him.  
  
"Hey!" Maria burst into the breakroom at that moment, followed by Tim. "Anton, you behaving yourself?"  
  
"Who, me?" Anton gave her a smirk, which she returned. "Of course I'm being good, just telling Eric here about the time Francesca snapped. And what a fat ass you were as a kid.  
  
"Lies! Blasphemy!" Maria laughed, playfully swatting her brother across the chest. "Eric, trust me, that's bullshit." She turned back to Anton. "Okay, whatever it is you need to talk to me about, let's talk. You gotta get the hell out of here and let me work."  
  
"All right, is there somewhere a little less public we can go?" Anton asked.  
  
"Try downstairs, storage room C." Tim spoke up. Eric and Maria gave him the same look, and he shrugged. "What?"  
  
"Come on, bro, we can talk outside." Maria said, pushing Anton out the door. As she followed him, she turned around. "You suck." She whispered to Tim.  
  
"From what I've heard, not nearly as much as you do." Tim responded with a wink. Maria gasped indignantly and slammed the door behind herself. "She's gonna kill you for telling me about that, isn't she?"  
  
"Maybe." Eric shrugged. "Hey, did you know that Maria's stepmother is a Senator?"  
  
"Yeah, Yolanda Santiago." Tim said. "What, don't tell me you've been screwing Maria for two months and you didn't know that? Man, do you two ever talk or do you just, you know, grunt?"  
  
"Fuck you." Eric muttered.   
  
"Isn't that what you have Maria for?"  
  
Eric rolled his eyes. "What's with you today? How can you be in such a good mood when we've got a case like this? Did you get laid or something?  
  
"Not quite." Tim admitted. "I did kiss Calleigh."  
  
"And?" Eric said, looking at him blankly.  
  
"And that doesn't surprise you?" Tim asked.  
  
"It surprises me that it took you so fucking long, yeah." Eric chuckled. "Come on, you two have been making eyes at each other for months. God, you're slow. And I thought it was bad that it took me two months to figure out that I'm in love with Maria."  
  
"Please, everyone already knows that." Tim informed him. "Except for Maria, and if I were you, I wouldn't tell her."  
  
"Why not?" Eric asked.  
  
"Because her idea of a 'deeper commitment' is waiting an more hour after you've fucked her before she leaves your apartment." Tim reminded him. "Jesus, remember last week, when you suggested that the two of you go away for the weekend, and she started hyperventilating? Trust me, for now at least, keep it to yourself."  
  
"Yeah, maybe you're right." Eric agreed. He thought for a minute. "Did you seriously know that I was in love with her?"  
  
"Like I said, everyone did." Tim said with a slight shrug. "Did you seriously know how Calleigh and I felt about each other?"  
  
"Everyone did." Eric replied. "We've got some communication issues around here, huh?"  
  
____________________  
  
"Maria?" Horatio couldn't help but notice the young woman's shoulders trembling as she bent over a microscope. "Is everything all right?"  
  
"Fine." Maria said, her voice too high pitched and too tight for anything to be fine. She turned to her boss and smiled weakly. "Everything's fine."  
  
"No, it's not." Horatio said. "If it were, you wouldn't look like you've been crying."  
  
Maria sighed and wiped a few telltale black streaks off of her face with the back of her hand. "Goddamn cheap mascara." She muttered under her breath. A fresh tear slid down her cheek. "It's my brother, Anton. He's being deployed. In two days."  
  
Horatio lay his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry to hear that. Do you know where he's going?"  
  
"Not exactly." Maria sighed. "I know what part of the world he'll be in, but not what country or anything like that. He's a SEAL, his family's on a need-to-know basis, and there's not much we need to know this time."  
  
"I'm sorry." Horatio repeated. He knew enough about Special Forces like Navy SEALs to know that if the more classified the location of a deployment was, the more dangerous it probably was.   
  
"I grew up with this, you know?" Maria sighed. "My dad was a Ranger, for fuck's sake. He saw combat and ambushes all over the world while we were all waiting at home, practically having a heart attack every time the doorbell rang. My whole family lives with all of this shit every day of our lives, but it never gets any easier. I mean, I know that he enlisted by choice, and it's his job, but..."  
  
"That doesn't mean you have to like it." Horatio finished her sentence for her. She nodded, covering her eyes with one hand and letting out a choked sob. "Maria, if you want to be taken off this case so you can spend time with your brother before he leaves-"  
  
"No." Maria interrupted, shaking her head frantically as she dried her eyes. "He'd kill me if I did that. No, I just need to do my job and catch this guy before Tuesday."  
  
"Well, if you're sure." Horatio patted her back gently. "At least take a break, okay? Even if it's just for half an hour, just give yourself some time to breathe and cool down a little."  
  
"Okay." Maria sighed. "Thanks."  
  
______________________  
  
"Get anything off of that glass?" Calleigh asked.  
  
Tim looked up from the photos of the second scene that were spread out in front of him. "It's definitely absinthe. It's illegal to sell it here in the states, which means our guy special ordered it from a liquor store that imports it, probably from Europe."  
  
"Well, that's a start, anyway." Calleigh said. The lack of physical evidence at the scenes was infuriating.  
  
"Where's Maria?" Tim asked. "I tried paging her, but she's got it turned off again."  
  
"Horatio let her take some time off." Calleigh explained. "She just found out that Anton's going to be deployed on Tuesday."  
  
Tim knew that was bad news. "Is she okay?"  
  
"She will be." Calleigh said. A pause hung between them for a minute before Calleigh broke it. "Uh, listen, I know we got interrupted earlier..."  
  
"We've got a psychopath on the loose who's aping the most infamous serial killer in history, and you want to talk about us?" Tim teased her gently.  
  
"That all depends." Calleigh said, moving closer to him. "Are we an 'us?'"  
  
"I think we could be." Tim replied, taking her hand and drawing her a little closer. "I mean, I know 'office romances' are risky, but I'm willing to take a chance if you are."  
  
Calleigh smiled and stepped forward, closing the gap between them. "I am."  
  
Before their lips could meet, the door opened behind them. "Whoa, don't let me interrupt." Maria said, backing up. "Again."  
  
"No, it's okay, Maria." Calleigh said, reluctantly taking a step away from Tim. "Are you feeling any better."  
  
Maria took a deep breath and smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll be fine. Speed, were we right about the glass?"  
  
"We were." Tim confirmed, handing her the printout of the results. "And that's pretty much all we have so far."  
  
"It's a start." Maria sighed. "We can check stores that import it around here."   
  
"We got anything?" Horatio asked, leaning into the room.   
  
"Absinthe." Maria said. "And that's it." She tapped her fingers on the table impatiently.  
  
"We need more. We need to find witnesses, establish a motive." Horatio stated. "Keep me posted."  
  
"Well, my theory for a motive is that he's completely and totally fucked in the head." Maria said with a slight grin after Horatio left.  
  
"I think we'll need to be a little more specific than that." Tim said. "We could be dealing with an obsessive Ripper fanatic. He's clearly studied the case."  
  
"We keep saying 'he.'" Calleigh pointed out. "But we haven't seen any solid proof that it's a man. Wasn't there a 'Jill the Ripper' theory with the original case?"  
  
"Yeah, there was a lot of speculation that it was a woman, possibly an abortionist." Maria said. "There were also suggestions that it was a man disguised as a woman."  
  
"But haven't those theories been more or less discredited?" Tim asked.  
  
Maria shook her head. "That's the kicker about the Ripper case. It was so long ago, and there are so many different suspects and scenarios that have been passed around for so many years, there are very few that can be one hundred percent disproved. I don't suppose we'll ever know, beyond any reasonable doubt, who it really was."  
  
"We'll know who this one was." Calleigh assured her.  
  
"I hope so." Maria said, unconvinced.  
  
___________________  
  
TBC… 


	5. Chapter Five

Title: Ripped (5/?)  
  
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down cause I'll never pay!  
  
Rating: R  
  
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh  
  
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.  
  
  
  
__________________________________________  
  
"H, we've got a possible lead." Eric said, catching up to his boss in the corridor. "A prostitute who worked the same streets as Melissa Black. Says she saw Melissa fighting with a guy about an hour before the last time Melissa was seen alive."  
  
"All right, let's bring her in and get a statement from her." Horatio said.  
  
"She's already on her way in." Eric replied.   
  
"Okay, good work." Horatio said. He looked at the younger man's face. "Is something wrong, Eric?"  
  
"It's nothing." Eric replied quickly. "Girl trouble, no big deal."  
  
"What's the problem?" Horatio asked.  
  
"It's this girl I've been seeing for a while." Eric admitted. "I just realized today that I barely know her. Around the same time that I realized that I'm in love with her. Trouble is, though, she's been through a lot, I get the feeling it's a lot more than she's told me. I just think she'll split if she thinks we're getting in too deep."  
  
"I think you owe it to Maria to tell her how you feel." Horatio stated. He chuckled at the shocked look on Eric's face. "Eric, give me some credit, it's my job to notice things. Besides, I don't think it's interfering with your work or hers, so it's not my business. It's not like you two had sex on my desk or anything, right?" He joked.  
  
Eric chuckled slightly. "Yeah, of course. I'm gonna go, uh, check in with Alexx."  
  
_____________________  
  
"So, did you try to intervene when you saw Melissa arguing with this man?" Maria asked.  
  
The brown-haired woman shook her head. "No way, I ain't gettin' involved when I see that kind of shit. And look, I'm real sorry that girl got killed, but I'm thinking it's a good thing I stayed outta it, if he's the one who did it."  
  
"Did you hear anything that was said?" Eric asked. "Did he threaten her in any way?"  
  
"She called him a motherfucker more than once." The woman said with a shrug. "And he called her all the usual shit, bitch, cunt, that kind of stuff. That's all I heard."  
  
"Okay." Maria said. "Analia, this is extremely important. Did you get a look at his face, or any details about him that could help us identify him?"  
  
"I didn't see him, it was too dark and they was way across the street, but...ooh, yeah! I saw his car, I think I'd seen it around there a few times." Analia said excitedly.  
  
"All right, good. That's good." Hagen spoke up. "Can you remember the license plate number?"  
  
A knock on the door interrupted, and Laura peered into the room. "Maria, one of the other techs found this outside." She handed a thin white envelope to Maria.  
  
"Thanks, Laur." Maria said. "Hey, page me immediately if any of those blood samples from the scenes turn out to not be from one of the vics, all right?"   
  
"Will do." Laura said. "Hey, I met your brothers earlier. Anton's-"  
  
"Very happily married with three kids." Maria interrupted.  
  
"Damn." Laura sighed. "And Estefan?"  
  
"Nineteen." Maria said.   
  
"Ew. Okay, I'll page you if there's any news."  
  
As soon as the door closed, Maria looked at the envelope in her hand. It was very thin, and had no addresses or stamp. There was only one thing written on it, in thick, dark capital letters.  
  
'DETECTEVE MARIA SANTYAGO'  
  
"Analia, could you excuse us for a moment?" Maria asked, her voice shaking a little. "John, stay with her." She grabbed Eric's arm and pulled him out of the room. "Take a look at this."  
  
Eric took the envelope from her and inspected it. "Well, aside from the second-grade spelling, there's nothing too suspicious looking about it-"  
  
"Except for the bad spelling." Maria corrected him, taking back the envelope. "That was another one of Jack's trademarks. All those cryptic, taunting letters he sent to the police, the 'From Hell' letter and the 'Dear Boss' letters. The spelling was atrocious in most of them, although no one's sure if that was a sign of low class, or an educated man trying to appear low class."  
  
"Maybe you shouldn't open that, just in case." Eric suggested nervously.  
  
But Maria was already tearing the envelope open. Her hands shook a little as she pulled out the paper and unfolded it. "Jesus Christ." She said breathlessly. She held up the paper so Eric could see the blood stains on it. And the jaggedly written words at the top of the letter.  
  
'FROM HELL'  
  
____________________  
  
'Dear Boss  
  
I did see you on my tv tuday. You are a prity little thing to be shure. You made me laugh when you sayd you wuld find me before I could kill agin. I like my work verry much and do not think I will let you and yor frends stop me yet. The two last nite were fun, the secend one sqeeled alot, tuk me some time to finesh. Keep looking for me little one, I will leeve one agin for you to find.  
  
Cach me if you can, prity girl.'  
  
Horatio set down the letter and looked at Maria. "He must have seen the coverage on the news, earlier today. That idiot reporter identified you and everything."  
  
"This is nothing." Maria insisted. "He's mimicking everything the Ripper did, he's trying to psych us out."  
  
"What if he's not?" Eric pointed out. He moved closer to Maria and put his arm around her waist, resting his hand on her hip. "Just because he's followed the Ripper's M.O up until now, who's to say that he's not trying to trap you, or any of us? What if he comes after you?"  
  
"That's a risk I'm willing to take." Maria shrugged.  
  
"Well, I'm not." Eric told her.  
  
Maria gasped incredulously. "Excuse me? Since when is that entirely up to you?" She snapped, shaking his hand off of her. "Or, you know, at all up to you?"  
  
"Since when do you not even have the common sense to know when your life could be in danger?" Eric shot back.  
  
"Oh, you're lecturing me about common sense?" Maria scoffed. "That's funny, coming from a guy who almost suffered brain damage two weeks ago because-"  
  
"All right, that's enough." Horatio stated firmly. "Everyone just take a few deep breaths and calm down. I understand that this is a difficult case. Letting personal feelings interfere isn't going to help. Maria, you can stay on the case for now. But I don't want you to so much as step out of this building to get something from your car without someone with you. And if we find even one more scrap of evidence, no matter how insignificant it may seem, that the killer is targeting you directly, you're off the case, and I'll assign an officer to stay with you around the clock until we catch this guy. That clear?"   
  
"Yeah, fair enough." Maria sighed. She turned on her heel and swept out of the room, without looking at Eric.  
  
"I should probably go after her and apologize, huh?" Eric said after a moment.  
  
"Probably." Horatio agreed.  
  
_____________________  
  
"Hey, hold up a second." Eric called to Maria. He caught up to her and stepped right into her path. "Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. The last thing you need right now is me giving you attitude."  
  
"You're right, it is." Maria said calmly. "But I accept your apology. This case is getting to everyone."  
  
"I didn't just mean the case." Eric told her, loosely wrapping his arms around her. "Calleigh told me about your brother."  
  
"Oh." Maria glanced down at the floor.  
  
"Good thing, too. If she hadn't told me, there's no telling when I would have found out." Eric continued.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Maria asked sharply. "No, forget it. I'm just tweaking from all this stress." She leaned up so her lips were only a few inches from his and smiled suggestively. "Maybe later you could help me...unwind?"  
  
Eric pulled her against him. "I'm sure I could find a way." He brushed his lips against hers.  
  
"God, get a storage room, why don't you?" The two of them looked up and saw Hagen approaching. "Word gets around." He said with a wink.  
  
"Funny." Maria said sarcastically. "What do you want?"  
  
"Got a name to go with the license plate number Analia gave us." Hagen replied. "Feel like paying this guy a visit?"  
  
Maria smirked. "You even need to ask?"  
  
________________________  
  
"So, it seemed like Delko was kind of pissed about you leaving." Hagen observed as he and Maria made their way up the front steps of the rundown apartment building. "Whatever that letter said, it must have spooked him pretty badly."  
  
"Whatever, Eric don't own me." Maria replied, tossing her hair over her shoulder.  
  
"No, but from what I hear, he does test-drive the hell out of you." Hagen teased.  
  
"Okay, you better shut up." Maria warned him.  
  
"Are you in love with him?"  
  
The question caught her off guard, but she recovered quickly enough. "I don't think you have the right to ask me that."  
  
"Fine, sorry." Hagen said. After a moment, he spoke up again. "I've seen the way he looks at you."  
  
"This is the place." Maria said, ignoring the statement. She knocked firmly on the door, and when there was no answer, she slammed her fist against the door furiously.  
  
"Yeah, what?" An unkempt man in his thirties shouted, ripping open the door. When he saw Maria, he changed his tone immediately. "Well, what can I do for you?"  
  
"Detective Santiago, Crime Scene Investigation." Maria introduced herself. "This is Detective Hagen, Homicide. Are you Daniel DeFilippis?"  
  
"I can be whoever you want me to be." The man replied, leering at her.  
  
Maria didn't let it faze her. It was nothing new. "Mr. DeFilippis, we need to as you some questions about Melissa Black."  
  
There was a flash of anxiety in Daniel's eyes. "Melissa? Is she okay?"  
  
"Does this look like 'okay' to you?" Maria asked, holding up a picture of Melissa's mutilated face.  
  
"Holy shit!" Daniel reeled back. "What the hell are you doing, showing me shit like that? Man, you are one sick bitch-"  
  
"All right, that's enough." Hagen interrupted.  
  
"John." Maria snapped, putting up her hand to silence him. "Daniel, how did you know Melissa?"  
  
"She...she worked for me." Daniel replied, leaning on the door with one hand and clutching at his stomach with the other.  
  
"You're her pimp?" Maria asked.  
  
"Pimp is such an ugly word." Daniel smiled at her, having recovered from the shock.  
  
"Well, it's a pretty ugly business, too." Maria shot back. "The smell in here is making my hair curl, so let's be quick. I got an eyewitness who saw you arguing with Melissa about an hour before she died. Half an hour after another prostitute was murdered and mutilated in a similar fashion, not a mile away. Where were you last night between eleven and one in the morning?"  
  
"After I left Melissa, I drove to a bar a few blocks over, met up with some friends, had a few beers. My buddy dropped me off around three." Daniel replied.  
  
"Okay, we're going to need the names and numbers of everyone who can confirm that." Hagen said. "Maria, are you going to need anything else?"  
  
"No, that's it." Maria said softly. "Get the numbers, I'll be in the car."   
  
____________________  
  
"Get anything?" Calleigh asked.  
  
"I think I might have caught some kind of freakish STD just looking at that guy, but other than that, no." Maria sighed.  
  
"His alibi checks out, and he didn't see anything unusual." Hagen explained.  
  
"This is getting us nowhere." Maria said, stalking off towards the breakroom.  
  
"God, she's really getting freaked out by this case." Calleigh sighed.  
  
"Well, the guy was a pimp." Hagen said. "And a sleaze."  
  
"That's nothing, she deals with sleazes every day." Calleigh pointed out. "I mean, hell, she deals with you just about every damn day, doesn't she?"  
  
____________________  
  
"Okay, Detective Santiago, time to go." Tim said as he approached Maria with Eric and Calleigh behind him.  
  
Maria shrieked and turned around. "Jesus fucking Christ, people! Don't sneak up on me like that!"  
  
The three of them exchanged looks. "Ooh...kay." Calleigh said finally. "See, this is what we were worried about. You're seeming just a little tightly wound."  
  
"Plus graveyard's here, and they've been briefed, so they want us out of the way so they can get to work on finding this guy." Eric added.  
  
"Please, graveyard couldn't find their asses with both hands if they had bells attached to them." Maria scoffed.  
  
"Well, be that as it may, you're starting to freak us all out." Calleigh told her. "You're like a woman possessed. All work and no play makes Maria a dull girl."  
  
"I'm fine." Maria waved them away.  
  
"Of course you are." Tim said. "If by 'fine,' you mean 'insane.' Come on, you don't have a say in this. We're going to take you out, and buy you drinks until you lighten up a little."  
  
"And tell us what the hell it is about this case that's got you acting like this." Eric said, wrapping his arms around her from behind and easily lifting her up.  
  
"Hey! Put me down!" Maria demanded. "God, what are the odds of you guys backing the fuck off and leaving me alone?"  
  
"Not good." Calleigh smirked.  
  
____________________  
  
"Okay, so spill." Eric said. "What's going on? I've never seen a case effect you like this."  
  
"Forget it." Maria finished off her third mojito of the night. "It's stupid anyway."  
  
"It's not stupid, otherwise you wouldn't be acting so weird." Calleigh insisted. Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged. "Weirder."  
  
"Fine." Maria sighed. "It's...it's a family thing. To cut a long story short, back when the Ripper first started terrorizing the Whitechapel District, my great-great grandfather on my mother's side was living in London with his family. He was a police inspector, and he worked on the Ripper case. It slowly drove him insane, and a few months after the murders ended, he blew his brains out, and his wife and kids went back to Russia. So, there you have it. I guess it's just in my blood or something. Either that, or you guys are right, and I'm completely insane."  
  
"Or, maybe it's both." Tim suggested.  
  
"I'd definitely say both." Eric agreed.  
  
"But mostly the insanity part." Calleigh added.  
  
"Oh, thanks!" Maria said sarcastically, laughing. "Gee, so glad I shared."  
  
"Come on, you know we're just messing with you." Eric put his arm around her and playfully ruffled her hair. "We're going to get this guy. And we're going to do it before any of us get driven insane."  
  
"More insane." Calleigh corrected.  
  
Eric shrugged. "Yeah, well, whatever."  
  
"The question isn't whether or not we're going to catch this guy." Tim pointed out. "It's how we're going to do it. I mean, let's face it, we're not doing much better than those guys in London were a hundred years ago, despite all the advantages we have over them."  
  
"Holy fuck, that's it!" Maria gasped, almost falling off of her bar stool. "Tim, you're a goddamn genius. Calleigh, kiss him, he's fucking brilliant!"  
  
As Calleigh more than willingly complied, Eric gave Maria a quizzical look. "What are you thinking?" He asked.  
  
"Okay, aside from all the technology we have," Maria explained. "What's the one thing we have now, that they didn't have in London a hundred years ago?" She didn't bother to wait for an answer. "Undercover Vice cops. And in this city? A lot of them."  
  
Eric realized what she was getting at. "So, what you're saying is..."  
  
Maria nodded, knowing that he got it. "Exactly." She snapped her fingers a few times to get Calleigh and Tim's attention. "You two! Knock it off, we're out of here."  
  
"What?" Calleigh asked, catching her breath. "Where are we going?"  
  
"To pay a visit to some old, dear friends of mine." Maria replied, leading the way out of the bar.  
  
_______________________  
  
TBC... 


	6. Chapter Six

Title: Ripped (6/?)  
  
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down cause I'll never pay!  
  
Rating: Heavy R (There's some sex, but not much, and I swear, this is one of those rare sex scenes that's actually somewhat relevant to the plot. Besides, if ya don't like smut, what are you doing reading one of my fics?)  
  
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh  
  
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.  
  
Soundtrack: "It's Only Love" by Heather Nova.  
  
____________________________  
  
"Maria." Lieutenant Brody looked exhausted, but he managed to smile as he shook the young woman's hand. "How are you?"  
  
"About as good as anyone can be right now." Maria replied. "Jake, this is Eric Delko, Calleigh Duquesne, and Tim Speedle."  
  
"Nice to meet you all." Brody said. "Please sit down. Maria, Yana said you had something you wanted to discuss with me?"  
  
"I think we may have an idea of how to catch this son of a bitch." Maria told him.   
  
"Well, that's good news. What's your idea?"  
  
"We're going to need your cooperation." Maria explained. "We need to get every prostitute we can find off the streets, and we need to put every undercover female officer you have out there in their place. We may even need to bring in women from other departments, or from neighboring counties."  
  
"Are you really having that much trouble at the crime lab?" Brody asked.  
  
"We've got a piece of broken glass with traces of absinthe on it, and that's pretty much it." Maria sighed.  
  
Brody shook his head. "Well, it's a brilliant idea, Maria. Of course, it's also completely insane."  
  
"Then again, so is Maria." Eric cut in.  
  
"True enough." Brody agreed, chuckling wryly.  
  
Maria playfully stuck out her tongue at Eric. "So, Jake, can we count on your help?"  
  
"I don't know." Brody admitted. "When would you want to do this?"  
  
"Tonight would be ideal." Maria said. "But I know that's not possible. So, I guess it should be tomorrow night."  
  
"That's going to be difficult." Brody told her. "It's going to take all day tomorrow to find those girls and get them off the streets. And what about the ones we can't find?"  
  
"Well, hopefully that will be because they're laying low, so he won't find them either." Maria reasoned. "All we need is for there to be more undercover officers than actual prostitutes out there."  
  
Brody thought it over for a moment. "You'll want to run it by Lieutenant Caine, I imagine. Keep in touch, Maria. If this is going to work, we're going to need to work together."  
  
______________________  
  
"So, are you and Speed going to be at his place tonight?" Maria asked casually as she and Calleigh walked back to Maria's car, intentionally falling behind Eric and Tim.  
  
"I'll be at home." Calleigh replied. "And I imagine he'll be at his apartment." She caught the look Maria was giving her. "What? We just don't want to rush into anything."  
  
"No, I think that's good." Maria told her. "It's sweet. So, are you going steady now?"  
  
Calleigh smiled. "Shut up."  
  
"Aww, is he gonna pin you?" Maria teased. "Are you guys gonna share a root beer float down at the drugstore?"  
  
"Cut it out!" Calleigh told her, laughing. She glanced at the two men ahead of them. "Where are you staying tonight?"  
  
Maria shrugged. "I think we'll end up at Eric's place. Lord knows I need some distraction, and I'm guessing he does too."  
  
"Distraction?" Calleigh repeated. "Is that what the kids are calling it these days?"  
  
"Hey, now who needs to shut up?" Maria laughed.  
  
____________________  
  
"How long has it been?" Eric asked.   
  
Maria glanced at her watch. "One minute and thirty-nine seconds." She looked back at Calleigh and Tim across the parking lot. Standing between her car and his bike, the two of them were lost in a deep kiss, and it didn't look like they would be coming up for air any time soon. "Then again, considering how long those two have been holding back..."  
  
"...wouldn't be surprised if we found them like that tomorrow morning." Eric finished, laughing at the idea, which didn't seem too far out of the realm of possibility.  
  
"That's what happens when you let your emotions get control of you, I guess." Maria said with a shrug.  
  
"It's nice, though." Eric said, not sure what to make of her statement. "For them, I mean."  
  
"Yeah, sure." Maria replied. "Hey, we'd better get out of here, just in case they do happen to come up for air any time soon."  
  
"Good idea." Eric agreed, putting the car in gear and pulling out of the parking lot. Maria was leaning back against the headrest, and her eyes were closed. Clearly, the discussion was over.  
  
______________________  
  
They made their way to his apartment slowly, their progress up the stairs impeded by their unwillingness to break apart for even a second. Even as he unlocked the door, Eric had Maria pressed against it, sucking at the sensitive skin on her neck as his free hand slid under the back of her shirt.  
  
A middle-aged woman in a red pantsuit stepped out of the elevator and breezed past the young couple. "Eric, Miss Santiago." She greeted them casually, so used to the spectacle that she barely even glanced in their direction.  
  
Maria giggled as Eric swept his fingers under the back of her bra, teasingly pulling at the clasp. "Hi, Mrs. Kelly." She replied, far too gone to even think of being embarrassed.  
  
Finally, the door opened and the two of them stumbled into the apartment, pulling at each other's clothing a little more aggressively as soon as the door was closed.  
  
In her aroused state, admittedly heightened by the alcohol she'd consumed, Maria didn't even realize they were falling until she found herself lying on top of Eric on the couch. At some point, he had managed to remove both her shirt and her bra, and now his mouth latched onto one breast as his hand massaged the other. Moaning softly, she started grinding her hips against him, as her hands fumbled with the buttons down the front of his shirt. Unable to see in the dark, she reached behind him and turned on the lamp next to the couch. When the light flooded over them, she saw him staring at her intently.  
  
"What?" She asked, laughing at the intensity of his expression.  
  
"We don't really talk that much, do we?" He asked.  
  
Maria looked at him as if a third eye had just appeared in the middle of his forehead. "Are you kidding me? Is this really the best time to bring that up?"  
  
"I don't know." Eric admitted, sitting up. "I just realized today, talking to your brothers, that I know almost nothing about you."  
  
"I wouldn't say that." Maria cooed, pressing against him. "You know how I like to be kissed..." She pressed her lips against his neck. "You know where to touch me..." She slowly kissed her way down to his chest.   
  
Eric groaned softly and gently pushed her away. "That's not the kind of thing I meant. I mean, your stepmother is a senator, one of your ancestors worked on the Ripper case, what else don't I know about you?"  
  
"God, Eric, it's not like I go around telling whatever guy I'm seeing that kind of thing." Maria said. "I mean, the Ripper thing isn't exactly pillow talk. And like I'm going to go around telling any psycho that I'm a senator's stepdaughter?"  
  
"Since when am I 'any psycho?'" Eric demanded. "Maria, we've been seeing each other for two months, and I only just met your brothers today, for fuck's sake. I don't know what your favorite movie is, what your first car was, your middle name, anything."  
  
"Could we not do this tonight?" Maria sighed. "We're both tired, this has been an absolutely brutal day..."  
  
Eric took a deep breath. "You know what? You're right, baby, I'm sorry. We've both had a bad day, you especially...last thing you need is me getting on your case."  
  
"Don't worry about it." Maria said, putting her arms loosely around his neck and straddling his lap.   
  
"No, really, I'm being an ass." Eric said, running his hands over her back. "I insist that you let me make it up to you."  
  
"Well, if you insist..." Maria sighed dramatically, leaning in to kiss him.  
  
It was all a blur to her after that. Somewhere between the couch and his bedroom, her skirt slid to the floor and she stepped out of it. By the time she was pinned between the cool, smooth surface of the bed and his lean, muscular body, his clothes were gone, too.   
  
Then his lips and hands seemed to be everywhere at once, caressing, teasing. Finally, he entered her slowly, letting her feel every inch of him sliding in. They rocked against each other, quickly falling into a fast, passionate rhythm.  
  
She could only moan in response when he whispered in her ear that she felt so incredible, so wet, so warm, so tight. Her nails dug into his back and she cried out and sank her teeth lightly into his shoulder when he grasped her hips and pulled her tighter against him.  
  
"I love you, Maria..." His voice filled her head again, so softly she at first wasn't sure if she'd really heard it.   
  
As soon as he said the words, Eric knew he'd made a mistake. Maria stopped moving abruptly. He looked at her face, saw that her eyes were closed and her expression was blank. Slowly, he moved off of her as she sat up.  
  
"Eric..." She said softly, her voice shaking slightly. "What the hell? I mean...why?"  
  
"I don't know." He admitted. He lay his hand on her shoulder, and felt her flinch and shrink away under his touch. She had never done that before. "I know we said that it wouldn't be like this. But it's not like I can help how I feel."  
  
Maria turned her head toward him slightly. In the dim light, he could have sworn there were tears in her eyes. "Eric...I can't..."  
  
He understood. Leaning back against the headboard, he drew a long, painful breath. "I don't think we should do this anymore."  
  
It was exactly what she had expected him to say, but the words still felt like a kick in the stomach. Then again, she knew that those words weren't exactly easy for him to say. "Okay." She sighed. "I should go."   
  
"No, it's late, you can stay here. I'll sleep on the couch." Eric said.  
  
"I should go." Maria repeated, her voice cracking slightly. She rose from the bed and made her way over to the door, fighting the urge to look back, or to say something.  
  
Eric closed his eyes. He wanted to stop her, somehow, to take it all back and convince her to stay. He couldn't, and he knew that. He heard her footsteps receding down the hall, pausing a few times as she picked up the clothing that had been dropped between the front door and his bedroom. After a few minutes, he heard the door open, and then close behind her.  
  
_____________________________________  
  
I used to think that I knew what we needed  
  
Just assumed we would always be fine  
  
Now I don't think that we lost the feeling  
  
But we let everything build up inside  
  
It's only love  
  
But love should make us strong  
  
It's only love  
  
But love has been hurting so long  
  
_________________________________  
  
"Freeze!"  
  
Maria shrieked and jumped, dropping her keys. "Calleigh! Dammit! You cannot sneak up on a paranoid person! What if I had my gun on me?"  
  
"Like you'd ever shoot me." Calleigh replied, yawning.  
  
"Don't rule it out." Maria grumbled under her breath. "Hey, what's...is that my hair dryer?"  
  
Calleigh shrugged. "Hey, I'm half-asleep, I couldn't find my gun."  
  
"Well, that's a first." Maria said, dropping her purse and making her way into the kitchen. "And for the future? It would look a lot more menacing without the diffuser on it."  
  
"Crap." Calleigh muttered, looking at the object in her hand. She followed Maria into the kitchen and saw her standing, facing the wall, leaning on the counter. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing." Maria said quickly, turning to the cupboard and taking out the instant coffee, still keeping her back to Calleigh.  
  
"You're upset." Calleigh observed.  
  
"No I'm not."  
  
Calleigh shrugged. "Okay, then I must be insanely happy."  
  
"Well, why shouldn't you be?" Maria asked, finally looking at her. Her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot.  
  
"Oh, honey." Calleigh gasped. She put her hands on Maria's shoulders and led her to sit down at the table. "What happened?"  
  
"Eric said..." Maria fought back a sob and took a deep breath. "He said he loves me."  
  
"And what did you say?" Calleigh asked, handing her a napkin and patting her back soothingly.  
  
"I think the first words out of my mouth were 'what the hell?'" Maria sighed  
  
"Probably not the response he was hoping for." Calleigh observed, eliciting a small, weak smile from her friend.  
  
"I couldn't say it back." Maria continued. "So he said that...we shouldn't see each other any more. And I don't blame him."  
  
"I'm sorry." Calleigh slid her chair closer to Maria's and put one arm around her shoulders.  
  
"How could I do that to him?" Maria broke down, anger creeping into her voice. "He told me that he loves me, and I just say 'I can't' and then walk out on him? God, he's better off without me."  
  
"Hey, do not say that." Calleigh told her. "Maria, you're a good person. You didn't mean to hurt him, and I'm sure he knows that."  
  
"What the fuck is wrong with me?" Maria asked softly, burying her face in her hands.  
  
Calleigh hesitated. She didn't have an answer.   
  
"It's not supposed to feel like this." Maria sobbed.  
  
"I know, sweetie." Calleigh sighed, embracing her friend as she wept. "I know."  
  
_________________________  
  
What a challenge, honesty  
  
What a struggle to learn to speak  
  
Who'd have thought that  
  
Pretending was easier  
  
It's only love  
  
But love should make us strong  
  
It's only love  
  
But love has been hurting so long  
  
_________________________  
  
"Good morning." Tim greeted Eric.  
  
"How the fuck do you know what kind of morning it is?" Eric snapped.   
  
"Okay, so...bad morning?" Tim guessed.  
  
"Maria and I broke up." Eric blurted out.  
  
"What did you do?" Tim asked.  
  
Eric glared at him. "What makes you think it was something I did?"  
  
Tim shrugged. "Well, for one thing...I've met you."  
  
"Fair enough." Eric admitted.  
  
The door to the breakroom practically slammed open. "What the hell were you thinking?" Calleigh demanded, walking right up to Eric.  
  
"Hi, Cal, nice to see you too." Eric said sarcastically. "How are you?"  
  
"Sleep-deprived." Calleigh replied.  
  
"Someone's in trouble." Tim said under his breath.  
  
Calleigh turned to him and smiled. "Hi."  
  
"Hey." He replied, returning the smile. "Look, not that watching you rip him a new one isn't entertaining enough as it is, but could I get a little backstory here?"  
  
"I've been up since three." Calleigh explained. "Trying to comfort Maria, who was crying for two hours because of him." She pointed to Eric. "Because he said he loves her."  
  
Tim gave Eric a look. "Did you hit your head? Did you fall down a flight of stairs? Because clearly, you somehow managed to completely forget what we talked about yesterday."  
  
"I didn't." Eric insisted, feeling increasingly uncomfortable. "But I talked to H, and he said-"  
  
"Oh my God!" Calleigh interrupted. "You go to Horatio for advice on dealing with difficult suspects, or processing tainted evidence. Not relationships. The man is divorced, for fuck's sake!" The two men looked at her, surprised by the intensity of her outburst. "What? I'm running on two hours of sleep and six cups of coffee."  
  
"Whatever, since when am I the bad guy here?" Eric asked. "I love Maria, was I so wrong to hope that she might feel the same way?"  
  
"You just don't get it." Calleigh said. "You have no idea." She took a deep breath. "Okay, look, I'm sorry. But you should try to talk to her. She's hurting just as much as you are, trust me."  
  
_____________________  
  
"Mornin', Lucy."  
  
Maria looked up from the autopsy report she was going over and cracked a weak smile. "I knew I wasn't Ethel."  
  
"That the post on Melissa Black?" Hagen asked.  
  
"Yes." Maria replied.  
  
"Same cause of death as the first girl?"   
  
Maria nodded. "Yes."  
  
"Looks like the same weapon and everything?"  
  
"Yes." Maria said.  
  
"Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow night?" Hagen asked.  
  
"No." Maria said, in the same tone as her previous answers. "Nice try, though." She turned back to the report. "So, I take it you heard?"  
  
"About you and Delko? Yeah, sorry about that." Hagen said. "But, no sense in living in the past, right?"  
  
Maria rolled her eyes. "You just don't give up, do you? Actually, I was wondering if you'd heard about what's going down tonight?"  
  
"The basic plan, yeah." Hagen replied, shrugging. "As soon as I heard about it, I had a feeling it might have been your brainchild."  
  
"Because it's so insane?" Maria asked.  
  
"Well, that and it's a good idea." Hagen told her. "I assume you'll be 'suiting up' along with the other girls."  
  
"You assume correctly."  
  
Hagen placed his hand on her back. "You'd better be careful out there."  
  
"Please, like you need to tell me that?" Maria scoffed, not turning around.   
  
They both reached for their cells phones as a ringing filled the room. Finding her phone silent, Maria turned slightly and watched as Hagen answered his.  
  
"You have got to be shitting me." He was saying, annoyed. "When? Okay, yeah, got it." He closed the phone and looked at Maria solemnly. "He got another one."  
  
Maria closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "No. Dammit, how the fuck did that happen?"  
  
"I don't know." Hagen admitted. "But we'd better get going."  
  
_______________________  
  
TBC… 


	7. Chapter Seven

Title: Ripped (7/8)  
  
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down cause I'll never pay!  
  
Rating: R  
  
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh  
  
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.  
  
Soundtrack: "'Round Here" by Counting Crows.  
  
_____________________________  
  
"It's like...like a Jackson Pollack painting." Maria said softly, staring down at what was left of the third victim.  
  
"I can't even tell how he did it." Tim added, feeling sick, and yet unable to look away. "And I think I can live a long and happy life without ever knowing."  
  
"Where'd Hagen go?" Calleigh asked, looking around, everywhere except down.  
  
"That's him over there, leaning over the trash can." Eric said.  
  
"So that's where the line forms?" Maria asked.  
  
"Yelina says the vic's name is Sara Berenbeim." Horatio filled the team in as he approached them. "Twenty-six years old. Last seen alive around midnight, Alexx is estimating the cause of death somewhere around a half an hour later."  
  
Maria sucked in a breath. Midnight. Around the same time she and the others had arrived at vice. As they'd left, half an hour later, the girl in front of them, only two years older than Maria, had probably been losing the fight for her life.  
  
"Your friends are here." Calleigh said to Maria.  
  
"Fuckin' press." Maria groaned. "Don't they have anything better to do? I mean, J. Lo must have bought a new pair of boots in the last twenty-four hours or something!"  
  
"Uh, no, your actual friends." Calleigh said, pointing.  
  
"Oh!" Maria said. She turned around as the other women approached. "Guys, stay back, you don't need to see this one, trust me."  
  
"Too late, Tina already saw it." Yana reported grimly. "She was undercover around here last night, she found the vic about an hour ago."  
  
"Oh, Jesus, Tina..." Maria gasped. "Babe, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah." Tina replied. "I'll be fine, I didn't see that much of her. All I needed to see was her feet and the amount of blood, and I took off."  
  
"Good." Maria said. "Then don't get any closer, okay? God, every therapist in the damn city is gonna be booked solid for the next year as it is."  
  
"This plan of yours," Another woman, Dorothy, spoke up. "It has to work, doesn't it? I mean, are you guys really coming up dry?"  
  
"Completely." Maria sighed. "This guy knows what he's doing. No fibers, no prints...it's eerie."  
  
"How is that even possible?" Tina asked.  
  
"No idea." Maria said. "All I know is that we don't have many other options. Trapping this guy seems to be the best way to go. So listen, right now you should all go home. Get some rest, spend some time with your families, whatever. I'll see you all at the lab at five."  
  
______________________  
  
Step out the front door like a ghost  
  
Into the fog where no one notices  
  
The contrast of white on white.  
  
And in between the moon and you  
  
The angels get a better view  
  
Of the crumbling difference   
  
Between wrong and right.  
  
I walk in the air between the rain  
  
through myself and back again  
  
Where? I don't know  
  
Maria says she's dying  
  
Through the door I hear her crying  
  
Why? I don't know  
  
'Round here we always stand up straight  
  
'Round here something radiates  
  
______________________  
  
Eric watched Maria walking down the corridor. He wanted to be furious with her, but his heart didn't seem to want to cooperate. She looked exhausted and harried, but all he saw was the way the dim lighting caught her golden hair, pulled into a tight bun, and gave her pale skin an icy, glowing look. He wondered if he would ever be able to see her as anything other than beautiful.  
  
"You got a minute?" He asked, falling into step beside her.  
  
"Yeah, but that's all I've got." She sighed. "Everything's so out of control." She followed him into the empty layout room and shut the door behind them.   
  
"You're going out there tonight, aren't you?" Eric asked after a minute.  
  
Maria nodded. "Every woman with undercover training is."  
  
"It's dangerous." Eric told her. "We still don't know for sure that he's not after you specifically."  
  
"I'll be fine." Maria replied, a little sharply. "I'll have plenty of backup, we all will. We'll be armed, we'll have panic buttons. Anyone so much as looks at one of us wrong, they'll be surrounded by an entire SWAT team within ten seconds."  
  
"A lot can happen in ten seconds." Eric pointed out, moving closer to her. "I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I'm just saying maybe you've done enough."  
  
"No, I have to see this through to the end." Maria said. "I've already gone over this with Horatio, I don't need to clear it with you."  
  
"I didn't say that, either." Eric reached out to put his hand on her arm, but she drew away. "All I'm saying is that if anything happens to you out there..."  
  
"What do you care?" Maria snapped. "You shouldn't. I'm not worth it."  
  
"That's bullshit, and you know it." Eric put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. "I do care about you, and I know that you care about me on some level. I don't believe that you can just walk away so easily. I know you better than you think. Maybe even better than you want me to."  
  
'Round here we're carving out our names  
  
'Round here we all look the same  
  
'Round here we talk just like lions  
  
But we sacrifice like lambs  
  
'Round here she's slipping through my hands  
  
"Fuck you." Maria's voice trembled as she shook him off and stepped away. "You don't know me at all. If you did, you wouldn't love me."  
  
"More bullshit." Eric said, stepping between her and the door. "Why is it so hard for you to believe that someone could actually care about you?"  
  
"Eric, don't..." Maria was on the verge of tears.  
  
"Don't what?" He asked. "Don't love you? Jesus Christ, Maria, even if I knew how to stop...I wouldn't want to." He placed his hand under her chin, tilting her face up slightly. "Tell me that you don't feel anything for me, and I'll leave you alone, I swear. Just let me hear you say the words."  
  
When she didn't answer, he leaned in and kissed her. She returned the kiss fully in spite of herself, at least for a moment. Then she pulled away, crying. "I can't, I'm sorry."  
  
"Why not?" Eric asked, his tone gentler than before. "Maria, whatever it is, you can tell me."  
  
"No!" She said forcefully, pushing him away. "Just leave me alone, please." A choked sob escaped her throat as she shoved past him, slamming the door as she left the room.  
  
_______________________  
  
Maria's in her car in the parking lot  
  
Says "Man you should try to take a shot  
  
Can't you see my walls are crumbling?"  
  
Then she looks up at the building  
  
And says she's thinking of jumping  
  
She says she's tired of life  
  
She must be tired of something  
  
'Round here she's always on my mind  
  
'Round here hey man got lots of time  
  
'Round here we're never sent to bed early  
  
And nobody makes us wait  
  
'Round here we stay up very, very, very, very late  
  
I can't see nothing, nothing  
  
'Round here  
  
I said I'm under the gun  
  
'Round here  
  
Oh man I said I'm under the gun  
  
'Round here  
  
And I can't see nothing, nothing  
  
Around here  
  
_______________________  
  
"Please tell me you borrowed that outfit from someone." Tim said, taking in the sight of Calleigh's beaded purple halter top, black skirt that looked more like a bandana, and thigh-high stiletto boots.  
  
"Who knew vice had such an extensive costume department?" Calleigh replied, rolling her eyes as she checked her reflection once more. "I might as well walk around naked."  
  
"I'd better not answer that. Might get in trouble." Tim joked, approaching her from behind and kissing her cheek. He slid his arms around her waist as his lips moved down the side of her neck.  
  
"Keep that up, and we both might get in trouble." Calleigh sighed.  
  
Tim shrugged. "Hey, if Delko and Maria can get away with it..." That was enough to kill the mood. "Then again, we all saw how that turned out."  
  
"I don't know who's holding up worse." Calleigh said sadly.   
  
"I don't know what the hell her problem is." Tim said.   
  
Calleigh tensed. "You're right, you don't. I hate that Eric's been hurt, too. But there's so much about Maria that he doesn't know. Most of it she didn't even tell me, I had to hear it from Anton."  
  
"How bad?" Tim asked.  
  
"A lot worse than I'd thought." Calleigh said. "I can't talk about it, though."  
  
"Okay." Tim took her in his arms again. "It's all right, I get it." He gently kissed the top of her head. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to focus on anything with you out there."  
  
"I'll be fine." Calleigh assured him. "Besides, chances are they won't even need me on the street. It's mostly the girls who have a lot of undercover experience who are actually going to be sent out,   
  
the rest of us just need to be on call in case they need more bodies." She cringed. "Okay, so maybe that was a bad choice of words."  
  
Tim smiled and kissed her again. "I'll see you when you get back."  
  
______________________  
  
"Okay, how do I look?" Maria inquired, strutting around with ease in stiletto heels that added five inches to her diminutive frame, and a sequined red tube dress.  
  
"Like a three-dollar hooker." Hagen replied nonchalantly.  
  
"Perfect." Maria laughed. "Let's go, then."  
  
"A really sleazy, cheap three-dollar hooker." Hagen continued.  
  
Maria rolled her eyes and hit him playfully. "Yeah, that's right, say it while you can."  
  
"I plan to."  
  
"Are we ready?" Calleigh asked.  
  
"I think so." Maria replied. Glancing down the corridor, she saw Eric standing outside the layout room, watching her. When their eyes met, he quickly looked away.  
  
"Maria?" Calleigh shook her friend's shoulder to get her attention.  
  
"Uh, yeah, let's go." Maria said, taking a deep breath. She stole another glance over her shoulder as she followed the others out the door.  
  
_____________________  
  
"Did you get a chance to talk to her?" Tim asked.  
  
"A couple hours ago." Eric replied, frowning. "I never realized just how much she shuts me out. She couldn't even look me in the eye." He shook his head. "So, how much does Calleigh hate me?"  
  
"She doesn't hate you, man." Tim insisted. "She's upset for both of you. But, yeah, I think she is placing a little more of the blame on you. I mean, as far as she's concerned..."  
  
"Hos before bros." Eric finished for him. "I know."  
  
"Everyone knew you were getting in too deep." Tim said. "I guess we all thought you could see it, too."  
  
"I should have. I should have known there was no way I could be around her and not fall in love. But it was like she blinded me or something."  
  
"Know what I think?" Tim asked. "And feel free to tell me I'm full of shit. But I think you're addicted to her, plain and simple."  
  
"Yeah, you're right." Eric agreed. "Trouble is, I don't think there's a twelve step program for this. And even if there was, I wouldn't want it."  
  
______________________  
  
Maria groaned softly, tugging uncomfortably at the hem of her dress. It was a hot, humid night. Much too hot for spandex. Her skin felt coated, and as she pushed away from the wall she had been leaning against, bits of dirt and gravel stuck to her arms. She hoped that the plan would work, and soon. The sooner she could get out of this hideous outfit and into a cool bath in her air-conditioned apartment, the better.  
  
She tried to convince herself that it was only the heat that was bothering her, and not the fact that the quiet monotony of the deserted maze of alleys and empty lots allowed her too much time to think. Thoughts of climbing out of that cool bath and sliding in between the smooth, thin sheets of her bed with a warm, solid body next to her stole into her mind, and she pushed them out.  
  
'It was just sex.' She thought. 'That's all it ever was.'  
  
Well, even she had to admit it was more than that.   
  
'Okay, so it was really amazing sex.' She said to herself. 'And nothing else.'  
  
So why did she have to work so hard to convince herself?  
  
"Maria, what's it look like out there?" Hagen's voice came over the communication device concealed in the studded leather cuff on her wrist.  
  
"Nothing, nothing, and more nothing." She whispered into the receiver.   
  
"All right, check in again in ten minutes."  
  
"Roger." Maria replied. Then the silence set in again.  
  
But the stillness was mercifully brief this time. Suddenly, the radio was alive again, this time with what seemed like dozens of voices.  
  
"All personnel respond, suspect has been sighted, repeat, we have a sighting on 82nd."  
  
________________________  
  
"Hey, you guys still here?" Tyler looked surprised to see Eric and Tim watching the news in the breakroom.  
  
"Yeah, we're here until this whole thing's over and done." Tim replied. "Get anything off of that security tape from the warehouse?"  
  
"Nothing, that thing's been out of commission since the place closed down." Tyler said, opening a can of soda. "Hey, Delko, could you help me settle a bet with some of the guys on the graveyard shift?"  
  
"Depends what the bet is." Eric replied.  
  
"Well, it's about Maria." Tyler said. "You've been hittin' that,   
  
right?"  
  
"Not that it's any of your business, but yeah, we had a relationship." Eric sneered at the tech. He liked Tyler well enough, but like most of the techs, the guy tended to have less than perfect social skills.   
  
"Well, these other guys were saying that her jugs are real." Tyler explained. "But I say there is no freakin' way those are hers. Anyway, I figured that you would know."  
  
"How much money did you bet?" Eric asked.  
  
"Fifty. Against three other guys."  
  
Eric smirked. "Well, then you're out a hundred and fifty bucks, man."  
  
Tyler's face fell. "Ah, shit."  
  
"Serves you right." Tim spoke up. "Don't you have any work to do?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Tyler said. "Making a difference in my community. I'm on it."  
  
Eric was about to say something when his cell phone rang.  
  
____________________________  
  
"Hey, it's me." Maria said when Eric answered the phone. She kept her tone casual and professional. "Just wanted to let you guys know we've got something here."  
  
"You've got him?" Eric asked.  
  
"Don't know, I'm just getting there now." Maria admitted. As soon as the squad car that had picked her up slowed down, she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door, jumping out almost before the car stopped completely. "Hang on a second." She raced to the center of the small crowd of officers that had gathered. "Shit, Yana, you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine." Yana replied, looking shaken but otherwise unharmed. She held out her wrist. "He grabbed my arm, I went for my badge and yelled my damn head off, but he took off before I could get a look at his face or go for my gun. I mean, it all happened so quick."  
  
"It's all right, the important thing is that he didn't hurt you." Maria grabbed the other woman's arm and inspected it for a moment. "Delko, you still there?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm here."  
  
"All right, I'm bringing in some evidence. Be there in about ten." As she hung up her cell phone, Maria smiled at her friend. "Yana, you feel like taking a tour of the crime lab?"  
  
_________________________  
  
TBC… 


	8. Chapter Eight

Title: Ripped (8/8)  
  
Disclaimer: (To the tune of "You Don't Own Me," by Leslie Gore) I don't own it, I'm not trying to claim it in any way. I don't own it, don't hunt me down cause I'll never pay!  
  
Rating: R (Potty mouths, they all are! Very naughty!)  
  
Pairings: Eric/Maria (OC), Tim/Calleigh  
  
Feedback: Your feedback = my inspiration = more frequent updates.  
  
____________________________________  
  
"Yeah, we've got some prints here." Eric said, inspecting Yana's arm under a lamp.   
  
"Super." Yana sighed. "Look, can I have my arm, or are you guys gonna need to chop it off and bag it?"  
  
"We'll be done with you in a few minutes." Maria assured her. "Are the prints good enough to put them through AFIS?"  
  
"We've got a couple of perfect ones." Eric replied. "The sweat and dust on her arm made some pretty clear ridges."  
  
"Wow." Yana said. "And to think we were complaining about the heat out there, huh Maria?"  
  
______________________  
  
Calleigh snuck up behind Tim and slid her hands over his eyes. "So what's your pleasure, sailor?" She purred in a husky voice.  
  
"Very funny." Tim said, turning around to face her. Much to his relief, she had changed back into her regular clothes. "That's more like it."  
  
"You're telling me." Calleigh laughed. "So, did you hear the good news?"  
  
"Yeah, that's great." Tim replied.   
  
Calleigh shrugged. "It's not an arrest. Not yet, anyway. But the prints are almost perfect, so hopefully..."  
  
"This'll all be over soon." Tim finished for her.  
  
"I swear, I could sleep for a week after this case." Calleigh leaned against him, yawning. "Hell, I could even take a sick day."  
  
"Damn, you must be really tired." Tim said teasingly. "You're delerious."  
  
Calleigh moved to slap him playfully across the chest, but he caught her hand and pulled her into his arms, kissing her deeply.  
  
____________________  
  
"We've got a match!" Eric announced.   
  
That was enough to jolt Maria, who had been sitting on the counter behind him, fighting to keep her eyes open, out of the haze. She slid up behind his chair and peered at the screen. "Holy fuck. H, you're not gonna believe this."  
  
Horatio looked at the screen. Even he was shaken by what he saw. "Well, that would certainly explain a lot."  
  
"What time is it?" Maria asked.  
  
"Almost six." Horatio said. "He'll be calling it a night by now, I'd imagine."  
  
Maria nodded. "We'll get him where he lives. Eric, alert Hagen and the rest of the team."  
  
"Way ahead of you."  
  
Horatio smiled at Maria. "Looks like your plan worked out after all."  
  
"Not yet." She said warily, looking back at the face on the screen. She shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around the killer's identity. "I don't be-fucking-lieve it."  
  
________________________  
  
"Jacqueline." Maria greeted the other young woman. "Thanks so much for coming on such short notice."  
  
"Are you kidding?" The profiler replied. "Anything to get this guy off the streets. It's sick."  
  
"You're telling me." Maria sighed. "Cases like this almost make me wish I'd gone into accounting. So, you reviewed his records, and the case file?"  
  
"I did." Jacqueline said.   
  
"And we got enough to get a warrant?" Maria asked. "I mean, I know his prints on Yana's arm are pretty hard evidence, but we need to be sure he's the guy we're after. There's no room for mistakes here, and that's why I called you."  
  
"Well, you're right, you need to be sure." Jacqueline said. "And it all fits together. Who else could have known how to clean up the evidence so well?"  
  
"And it makes sense that he would single Maria out." Horatio spoke up, referring to the letter Maria had received. "You were the one who blew the whistle on him, weren't you?" He said to her.  
  
"More or less." She shrugged. "I mean, I just mentioned casually to Lieutenant Walsh that it seemed like a lot of his cases were dead ends, and then next thing you know, he's under investigation for corruption."  
  
"To him, that's probably reason enough to blame you." Jacqueline pointed out. "Of course, there's no evidence that he ever intended to harm you physically. But did he know about your family's ties to the Ripper case?"  
  
"I don't doubt it." Maria admitted. "I didn't tell him, but he knew my whole family, he and Anton were good friends."  
  
"Then it is entirely possible that he was targeting you in a psychological way." Jacqueline said. "Are you sure you want to be there when he's picked up? He could see it as one more reason to want to get back at you."  
  
"No, I've seen this case through this far." Maria stated. "I'm going to finish it."  
  
"Well then, you've got my input." Jacqueline said. "I'd say what you need to do now is take this evidence to a judge, get a warrant, and take this motherfucker down."  
  
_______________________  
  
"Is he in there?" Horatio asked as he and Maria got out of the Hummer.  
  
"He's in the back yard." Hagen replied. "He's digging around back there."  
  
"Okay, I'm going in." Maria said.  
  
"Be careful." Horatio told her.  
  
"Watch my back." She replied.  
  
The gate opened easily and almost silently. The man digging in what looked like a garden bed didn't turn around as she approached him.  
  
"Hello, Detective August."   
  
He turned then, a shocked expression on his face. He recovered quickly and smiled. "Well, well. Officer Santiago. It's just Nate now, as you well know."  
  
Maria smirked. "Well, Nate, it's Detective Santiago now, as I'm sure you well know. I just came by to see how you've been."  
  
"Since you destroyed my career, you mean?" Nate snapped.  
  
"Oh, please." Maria laughed derisively. "I can't take credit for that. For fuck's sake, Nate, you were the one taking bribes from every suspect you could get close enough to, and then putting them back out on the street. You would have been caught sooner rather than later, and you fucking know it."  
  
"I was wasting away on the goddamn CSI graveyard shift!" Nate shouted. "I should have been running the show, not that Donner bitch, and not that asshole who's in charge now. Fuck, Maria, you of all people should know how it feels to be overlooked and underestimated. You have ten times the talent than anyone in vice, and you were stuck out on the street."  
  
"Yeah, so I left vice." Maria said in a 'duh' voice. "You had a good career, Nate, and it was only going to get better. You had so much potential, and you blew it all out of spite."  
  
Nate didn't answer, he kept digging in the ground in front of him. Maria knew what this man had done to three innocent women, whom he'd never met, and had no kind of history with. He had a history with her. One that, in his twisted mind, was reason enough to commit murder. And yet, she wasn't afraid of him. Quite the opposite, with every moment that passed without him making a move, she felt more powerful.  
  
"So, doing a little gardening?" Maria asked casually. "What are ya gonna plant? Some kidney beans? Maybe some bleeding hearts?" She smirked at her own, admittedly bad, puns.  
  
He looked at her, his eyes wide.   
  
"Ooh, did I forget to mention you're under arrest?" Maria asked cheerfully as the gate opened and a team of heavily armed officers entered the yard, led by Hagen and Horatio. "John, H, I believe you gentlemen remember Nathaniel August." She said, calmly walking past the men and out of the yard.  
  
_________________________  
  
"It's been a hell of week so far, huh?" Calleigh sighed dramatically, practically collapsing onto the couch beside Maria.  
  
Maria laughed. "Emphasis on 'hell,' thank you."   
  
"Are you okay?" Calleigh asked.  
  
"Yeah, now that it's all over." Maria replied.  
  
"I wasn't talking about the case." Calleigh said. "You can tell me until you turn blue in the face and pass out that you were just using Delko to get you off whenever you had an itch, but you're not fooling anyone."  
  
"You know, Cal, I got a lot on my mind, okay?" Maria sighed, standing up abruptly. "I'd just like to have five minutes of peace without getting the third degree about my personal life, I think I've earned that much!"  
  
"All right." Calleigh said, shrinking back slightly. "Sorry."  
  
"No, I am. I'm sorry." Maria sat down again and put her head in her hands. "I'm just...God, I'm just exhausted."  
  
Calleigh hugged her. "I get it, trust me. It's okay. Listen, Tim and I were going to go out tonight, but if you want me to stay at home with you-"  
  
"Don't even think about it." Maria told her. "You are going to go out, have a good time, and not do anything I wouldn't do, which pretty much means you're open for business."  
  
"All right." Calleigh said. "Don't wait up."  
  
"You kidding?" Maria asked. "I see you before noon tomorrow, and I will kick your ass."  
  
"Noted." Calleigh laughed. She headed for the door just as Hagen came into the room. "See you later, John."  
  
"Yeah, later Cal." Hagen replied. As soon as Calleigh was gone, he stood behind the couch and leaned over slightly, just as Maria tilted her head back. "Hey." He said.   
  
"Hey."  
  
"So, how's it feel?" He asked. "He's on every news channel on TV, and not just in Florida, either. And look who's right there, bringing him in." He picked up the remote and turned on the TV.  
  
Sure enough, Nate was on the news, being led into the station through a crowd of clamoring reporters. Maria had him by his left arm, Horatio was on his right.  
  
"Big deal." Maria said. "I get more airtime than that when I go shopping with my stepmom."  
  
"Yeah, but it's different this time." Hagen pointed out. "You're a star this time. What do you say we go out and celebrate tonight?"  
  
Maria rolled her eyes. "John...I'm just not ready, okay?"  
  
"Yeah, I can understand that." Hagen admitted. He waited a moment. "How about now? You ready now?"  
  
"Shut up." Maria laughed.  
  
"How about now? Come on, you can't blame a guy for trying."  
  
"I blame you for breathing." Maria replied, shoving him playfully as she stood up. Over his shoulder, she saw Eric watching through the glass door. "I gotta go. I'll see you, okay?" She made a graceful enough exit, but when she was standing just a couple feet away from him in the corridor, she found she couldn't speak.  
  
"I'm glad you're all right." Eric spoke first, his voice not betraying any emotion.  
  
"Thanks." She said. "Uh, I better go, Anton's leaving in a couple hours."  
  
"Maria, this isn't just going to go away." Eric said as Maria started to walk away. She turned back, and he continued. "I don't think there's anything you could do or say that would change how I feel about you."  
  
"Why?" Maria asked, choking back tears.  
  
"Damned if I know." Eric admitted. "I mean, you are the single most frustrating woman I have ever known in my life. And if you'd ever met my mother or even one of my sisters, you'd know just how bad that is."  
  
"Well, you are the most clueless man I have ever known." Maria shot back. "And you have met my brothers, so you should know how bad that is."  
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." Eric struggled to find the right words. "I just don't get what you do to me. I don't get you, or know you. But I still fell in love with you somehow." He paused and took a deep breath. "Look, maybe you'd better get going. Your brother's waiting, and anyway, I don't think I can be around you right now. It's just too raw."  
  
"Yeah." Maria agreed. She started to walk away, then turned back once more. "You know, Eric, this probably doesn't help, but...the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you, in any way."  
  
"It's not your fault." Eric admitted. "I should have realized I was getting in too deep."  
  
"So...what now?" Maria asked.  
  
Eric shrugged. "No idea."  
  
"Yeah, me neither." Maria said. "So...I'll see you."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
With that, he was walking away, and she managed to walk in the opposite direction, willing the tears that were threatening to start to just hold off until she was outside to her car, away from prying eyes.   
  
When she finally made it to the light blue convertible, she slumped over in the driver's seat, and finally let the tears fall.   
  
"Ah, shit." She muttered. She took a deep breath before she wiped her eyes, and reached into her purse to find her car keys.   
  
___________________________  
  
Next time:  
  
"Something's wrong, I can't wake her up!"  
  
*****  
  
"I just keep thinking about what would have happened to her, if we'd been just a few minutes later than we were."  
  
*****  
  
"I just want to know the truth. Tell me what he did to you."  
  
_____________________________  
  
Stay tuned... 


End file.
